Given that nearly half of Canada is covered in trees, forests provide crucial resources to the environment and economy. But that fact was not foremost in the minds of the European settlers when they chopped down the Acadian forest to make way for farms, roads, and other development. Fixing this is the work of restoration ecologists. Restoration ecology is the science that deals with the repair of damaged or disturbed ecosystems. It requires a special blend of skills—biology, chemistry, and sometimes engineering—and a heavy dose of political will.
A series of policies established in the 1980s are designed to help restore some balance to Canadian forests and to protect and maintain these vital resources. Nationally, forests and forest resources are overseen by the Canadian Forest Service, a branch of Natural Resources Canada. Similar agencies exist in each province, employing foresters, economists, scientists, policy makers, and other experts to develop guidelines for maintaining forests while sustainably using the resources these ecosystems have to offer, such as timber.
Forest regulations are implemented at several levels of government, and how that happens depends on the individual province. Ecosystems may be managed by different agencies, for example Natural Resources Canada, Environment Canada, and the Ontario Ministries of Natural Resources and the Environment. In Ontario, conservation agencies often restore habitats using funding from both the government and fundraising from private donors. Although this system shares responsibility, it also can create problems if the levels of government don’t communicate properly with each other or work toward the same goals.
And government can only make policies on land owned by the Crown. In most provinces, private companies own only a small proportion of land—but in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, where much of the Acadian forest was once located, nearly half of all land is in private hands, simply because these areas contain much inhabitable and farmable land that was sold to the first European settlers. Over time, companies have bought up that land from individual owners to manage for timber.
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Forest policy in Canada is evolving, says Stephen Wyatt, a professor of forest policy and social forestry at Université de Moncton. “Before, forest policy was dictated by the government and industry—they were the two groups that decided what happened to the forests,” he says. “Over the last 20 years, that’s been changing, and public opinion has become much more important.”
For instance, forest management policies increasingly include the input of First Nations communities. Just how much input, however, depends on the province—some provinces give First Nations communities a parcel of forest to manage as they wish; others require that they use the land to produce timber. In New Brunswick, the original site of much of the Acadian forest, First Nations groups have simply been given a quota of timber they can cut and sell to industry each year, without any land to manage.
Including First Nations communities in forest management makes sense, says Wyatt, since they often understand the ecosystem better than anyone else. “People who live in forests often have knowledge that goes back hundreds of years,” he says. “They know where moose populations are, or the critical sites that geese come through each year. It just makes sense to talk to these people, to do a better job of forestry.” Importantly, it’s also a matter of what’s right, Wyatt adds. “They have a right to be involved in forest policy in Canada, because they have been here since time immemorial.”